2007-01-12 11:29:11 · 29 answers · asked by butterfly 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Christians do not believe in three Gods. The Bible says in the Torah, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One" (Deuteronomy 6:4), and in the New Testament (Injil) it says, "We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one" (1 Corinthians 8:4).
Christians do believe in the Trinity: one God who exists in three Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Christians did not make up the doctrine of the Trinity, but believe it because of the teaching of the Bible, which teaches that:
a. There is only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4 and 1 Corinthians 8:4, quoted above).
b. Three entities are identified as God:
1) The Father: Jesus refers to "God the Father" in John 6:27, and the Lord's prayer begins with: "Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name" (Matthew 6:9).
2) The Son: God the Son became man in the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is referred to in the Injil as "the Word," as in the Qur'an he is referred to as "a word from God." In the Gospel of John, it says of him: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Later it says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14).
Jesus himself claimed, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30), which angered the Jews so much that they tried to kill him because he, a mere man, claimed to be God (John 10:30). Jesus backed up his claim to be God in human flesh by his sinless life and by his unequaled miracles (John 10:32), especially his resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:1-4).
3) The Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit is the personal extension of God's presence anywhere in the universe. The Holy Spirit is equated to God in Acts 5:3-4 where lying to the Holy Spirit is equal to lying to God. All three entities of the Trinity are referred to together as equals in Matthew 28:19-20, which speaks of "baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit," and in 2 Corinthians 13:14 which speaks of the "grace of the Lord Jesus Christ [the Son], and the love of God [the Father], and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit."
c. These three entities are distinct Beings. For example, Jesus [the Son] prayed to God the Father in heaven (John 17), and God [the Father] is said to have sent the Son into the world (John 3:16-17). In John 14:26 Jesus says that he sends out the Holy Spirit from the Father. In John 16:13-14 it says that the Spirit gives glory to Jesus [the Son].
So Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not just different names for the same thing, but each represent a personal entity which acts in relation to the others: the Father sends the Son, the Son sends the Spirit, the Son prays to the Father, the Spirit brings glory to the Son, etc.
The only way to make sense of these three truths (one God, three Persons identified as God, each distinct from the other) is to believe in One God existing as three entities (Father, Son, and Spirit) perfectly united in harmony and Being.
Admittedly, the doctrine of the Trinity is mysterious and hard to understand. But this does not mean it is wrong. God himself is mysterious and beyond what we can hope to fully understand. Nevertheless, some analogies can help us make sense of the Trinity. Just as a single beam of light can be divided into its three primary colors (red, green, and blue), so one God can be divided into Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The mathematics of the Trinity is not 1 + 1 + 1 = 3, but 1 x 1 x 1 = 1.
2007-01-12 11:33:55 · answer #1 · answered by **smile** 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Who knows? They admit it's something that shouldn't be questioned but accepted as is because there's really no answer (http://www.watchtower.org/e/ti/index.htm). No human has been able to understand the concept of Trinity yet, and no human ever will because it's not true. They believe that Jesus is God, Jesus is God's Son, God is One, but God is three. (God, Son, Holy Ghost). Makes no sense... How three if one? How one if three?
So just don't worry about it; God is One, whether anyone likes to accept it or not, and He has NO son/father. Doesn't need any because He can save us without having to let one person die for everyone else's sins.
But if that's what Christians believe, who's anyone but God to say whether they're wrong or right?
Peace and God's blessings and mercy be upon you!
2007-01-12 17:38:59 · answer #2 · answered by ♡♥ sHaNu ♥♡ 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, we believe in One God, three in one, Just as we have the body, spirit, and soul but yet we are one.God spoke the world into exitience,He sent His Spirit to hover over the face of the earth and His word said let there be light and so on all things were created by His Word, So we see hear is God, His Spirit and His Word. Three in One. Read the beginning of Genesis.
2007-01-12 11:43:20 · answer #3 · answered by Smiley 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
God The Father
God The Son
and God The Holy Spirit
PERIOD!
2007-01-12 11:33:57 · answer #4 · answered by Heaven's Messenger 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
True Christian? No.
JESUS CHRIST DID NOT SAY, “I AM GOD.”
JESUS SAID, “I AM THE SON OF GOD.”
(John 10:36) (Matthew 27:43)
The Bible makes the direct claim that Jesus is the Son of God.
All true Christians must study the Word of God for themselves and should stop using trinitarian terminology and should go back to emphasis of the basic Bible message,
"I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me."
How many gods does God say there are? Scriptures that show there is only one God.
God is not shy to say "I am God" and if Jesus is God, then how come Jesus never said it once like the God of the Old Testament? Jesus is never recorded in the Bible as saying the exact words, “I am God.”
Keep in mind, The opinion of man means nothing. What matters is what the true Word of God has to say.
The teaching that Jesus Christ is God was made by the philosophies of men of the Catholic and Orthodox in Council of Nicaea, years after the Lord Jesus Christ had ascended to heaven and after the death of the apostles.
2007-01-12 11:41:25 · answer #5 · answered by House Speaker 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Some do, some don't. The original view of the Trinity was that God is a single Platonic universal with three instantiated beings, but that those beings share common energies.
If that doesn't make any sense, brush up on your Aristotle.
2007-01-12 11:34:22 · answer #6 · answered by NONAME 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
One God , three responsibilities. God the Father , God the Son(Jesus( and God the Holy Spirit.
2007-01-12 11:49:47 · answer #7 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i'm a southern baptist and we believe in The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. God is the Father, Jesus is the Son, and The Holy Spirit is the spirt of the Lord
2007-01-12 11:38:14 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
no, we believe in the trinity: the father, the son, and the holy spirit. God has three parts.
2007-01-12 11:35:56 · answer #9 · answered by rentalsocks 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
We believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
2007-01-12 11:34:01 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. According to Christian doctrine, the Trinity is one entity with three aspects. Consider three blind men feeling an elephant: one investigates a leg, one the trunk, and one the tusks, comparing their experience after the fact. None of them has the big picture. But there is neither evidence nor logic to believe in any of this.
2007-01-12 11:34:05 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋